The Oxford handbook of linguistic analysis /

This collection of 33 essays by prominent linguists surveys the current state of scholarship for various models of linguistic analysis. Heine (emer., Institut fur Afrikanistik, Univ. of Cologne, Germany) and Narrog (cultural studies, Tohuku Univ., Japan) prompt contributing linguists to provide readers with a general description of their models, which range from framework-free grammatical theory to systemic functional grammar, and to answer a series of questions. Each essay explores the basic premises of a distinct model of linguistic analysis by summarizing its main goals, presenting types of relevant fieldwork or data, and drawing succinct conclusions about current and potential trends. The handbook opens with a thoughtful introduction that accounts for problems in a survey of this scope, such as determining which domains are most significant and inevitably encountering some overlapping methodologies. The introduction and clear directives for each essay make this handbook more effective than its closest companion in the "Oxford Handbooks in Linguistics" series, The Oxford Handbook of Applied Linguistics, ed. by Robert Kaplan (CH, Jul'02, 39-6252). The subject index, list of abbreviations, and frequent use of analogies and illustrations render the book accessible, but the content is too technical for nonspecialists. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers. C. P. Jamison Armstrong Atlantic State University